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Dog owner: ‘They’re my babies, they’re my children’

Sheyanne Romero
Published 8:20 p.m. PT May 3, 2017

Kimberly Stokes is fighting the city to release her dog who they say attacked a neighbor in January.(Photo: Submitted)

Kimberly Stokes is fighting for her dog, who has been in the pound since January.

That’s where the story starts. Stokes woke up to find her two dogs, Mademoiselle and Armani, had escaped from her Visalia backyard. She tracked them down, but a neighbor said the dogs attacked.

“My mom ended up calling me,” Stokes said. “She said, ‘I got a call from the neighbor across the street that your dogs are out.’”

When Stokes went to check on her dogs, she saw them in the middle of the street. They were near the neighbor’s home.

According to Stephan Stewart, the neighbor, he was standing in his front yard when Stokes’ dogs attacked him and his dogs.

“Once I got closer to the garage door, I saw that no one was inside but more blood was on the floor,” the officer said. “Stephen showed me his hands where he got bit and told me he was fine.”

Stewart told the officer he had to restrain Armani, while the dog was attacking his small dog.

“I’m down there beating on the dog and grabbing it,” Stewart said. “Fortunately for my dog, I think what saved him was, in the process of all this, we were underneath the back end of my car.”

Stokes ran to the house and put Stewart’s dogs in the garage and checked on her neighbor. The animal control officer took her dogs to the city’s animal shelter where they stayed until the first hearing.

In February, an administrative hearing was held to determine whether Stokes’ dogs were vicious and would need to be put down.

“I would hope that I would have the opportunity rather than my dogs just being put down,” Stokes said. “I don’t think they are vicious animals.”

During the hearing, Stokes told the court she had fixed her fence and purchased kennels for the dogs. Thomas Hornburg, hearing officer, gave Mademoiselle back to Stokes but said that Armani was too vicious to be put back in society.

However, Stokes believes her dog can be rehabilitated and has found a trainer who is willing to take Armani until he is tame.

“I want to be a good dog owner,” she said. “They’re my babies, they’re my children. I don’t have children, they’re my babies. I want them to be in a safe environment, I want my neighborhood to be safe.”

The next step came this week.

On Wednesday, Stokes was back in court requesting an appeal from Tulare County Superior Court. Her attorney Ronald Calhoun asked Judge David Mathias for a hearing to be held in two which would allow him time to gathered evidence.

“I’ve read the transcripts,” Calhoun said. “The dog is not vicious from what I’ve read. We need more time to exam the dog.”

Armani is being evaluated by licensed animal trainers on Friday.

“Our next step is to work out an arrangement so [Stokes] can keep her dog,” Calhoun said.